Belated happy
4th of July! We celebrated the holiday in Cape Vincent, NY, which is on
the St. Lawrence River. Cape Vincent is a wonderful, little town - - very
"all American". And, for the boaters, the town has room for approximately
12 transient boats between a town dock and a fisheries dock, no charge
(no electric or water). We are at the fisheries research dock and it is
wonderful. The water is so clear! And the temperatures have been in the
mid-50s at night and low 70s during the day. It is perfect.

We spent one
night on the lock 8 wall in Oswego before crossing Lake Ontario yesterday
(4 July). We are now out of the locking business until we hit the Trent-Severn
canal. Oswego is a nice town and we were able to stock up on supplies
- - which we promptly ignored because we found free food at a Happy Hour
at Admiral Woolsey's restaurant. We were also able to put the mast back
up on the boat since we are out of the Erie Canal and passed the canal's
low bridges.

We left Oswego
early in the morning and although at noon NOAA was issuing a small craft
advisory for the lake, we beat the wind and weather and were safetly docked
in Cape Vincent before anything hit. Last night, we grilled BBQ chicken
and corn-on-the-cob and watched fireworks from a town in the distance
over the water. Oh, what a life ...

We plan to
leave here tomorrow and head for Clayton and Alexandria Bay, still in
NY. On Sunday/Monday, we will head a little north and be in Canada. It
is hard to believe that we have been in New York for nearly 6 weeks -
- I think we have seen every side of this state (NY harbor, Long Island
Sound, canal system, Lake Ontario), all of them very different but wonderful!

We are still
seeing other boats that we have seen along the way. In Oswego, we even
ran across (no, not literally!) other MTOA (Marine Trader Owner's Association)
members that we had originally met in Baltimore 2 years ago. They are
in the process of doing the Great Circle (i.e. along the east coast Intercoastal
Waterway, through the canals, through the Great Lakes, down the Illinois
and Mississippi Rivers, and then back around Florida). Again, Brian was
ready to jump ship and go with them - - what the heck's another 6 months
off, right? ... I am starting to be convinced that I will be returning
by myself in September/October!

All for now.
We'll touch base again when we can. It will be interesting to see about
the Internet access capabilities in the libraries in Canada.